Showing posts with label romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label romance. Show all posts

Monday, May 8, 2023

It's release day for Angels, Sinners and Madmen!

Happy book birthday to my historical, Angels, Sinners and Madmen *tosses confetti*

Order your paperback from Bookshop.org (and help a local book store at the same time!).

Amazon carries both the digital version and paperback.

However you like to read, I hope you'll enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it!

Friday, March 9, 2018

One last tango with romance

After nearly two years, I’m finally finally putting the finishing touches on The Vitruvian Man! First published by Decadent Publishing as a novella trilogy (Cursed, Charmed and Claimed) in 2013, I asked for the rights back a few years ago so that I could combine the stories into one full-length novel, and expand the story as it should have been from the first. Because of the word count restrictions on Decadent’s line that I subbed the stories for, some readers said the story felt rushed. I couldn’t argue – I had to cut quite a bit, and abbreviate some sections to fit the guidelines. It’s long been a regret.

The story’s been one of my favorites. I’d read an article in Smithsonian Magazine about Carnevale in Venice about the same time I read two other intriguing science articles, one about human tests of the hormone oxytocin (not to be confused with the street drug), and another about scientists embedding the text of books into human DNA.


While researching Venice, I fell in love with the city. The history’s so rich, and the setting’s incredibly beautiful. My longtime interest in Leonardo da Vinci played right into it, and after learning of the objections of his contemporaries to his gruesome study of human anatomy, that also played right into the story line of da Vinci experimenting not only with his inventions, but with dark magic.

Add the Goo Goo Dolls’ song to the mix, and that’s how Cursed first came to me.


Since getting the rights back to the three releases, I’ve made a few important changes to the story premise. The hero is now a descendant of the man to whom Leonardo subjected his experiments to become a literal Vitruvian Man. The story goes into greater detail about the antagonist characters, and as I mentioned, is expanded in general.

The exceptions are the sex scenes. I’ve honestly never been comfortable with writing them. Editors were constantly prompting me to add more “body parts” and lengthen the sex scenes. Another publisher once pushed for me to include the “C” word, which I flatly refused. I have never liked reading stories that demean women in that way, and I will certainly never write one.

So I’ve taken out any explicit sexual language from this story, and the scenes focus more on the emotional aspect.

This will be my last release as Cate Masters, at least for awhile. I have so many other stories I want to tell that, while they may or may not include a romantic aspect, will not dedicate more than fifty percent of the story to the romantic development, as the romance genre requires.

I’m grateful that readers have loved my romance stories, and I’ve had a lot of fun writing them. It may be more difficult to find a publisher for the novels I’m writing now, but I need to follow my writer’s heart – into speculative, fantasy, magical realism, and mainstream stories, writing as C.A. Masterson.

I hope you’ll come along for the journey.



Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Finette's Folly - Steampunk fairy tale


Finette’s Folly

A Steampunk fairy tale romance



About 32,860 words



Happy endings require patience, hope, and a little ingenuity. Finette Proulx puts her skills at repairing clockwork gadgetry to greater use when she bets all she has on an airship race. Her loss only steams up her desire to win the prize at the British Diamond Cup—and her freedom. After such a lonely life, love seems too much to ask... until she meets Sacha. A mysterious Romanian, “Sacha” Aleksander Dragomir Dalca, aids her in ways she doesn’t suspect. At the moment she thinks her life is falling into ruin, she finds him waiting to catch her with open arms. The handsome gypsy affirms her belief that dreaming's not for fools, and she deserves to write her happy ending her own way.



Finette's Folly is a re-imagined fairy tale based on the French version of Cinderella, Finette Cendron.



Available from





Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Happy release day to Cassandra Dean!

SILK & SCARS
Book Series: The Silk Series Book 3
Publisher: Decadent Publishing Company, LLC
Published Date: 2 June 2015
Genre(s): Historical Romance, Sweet Romance, Early Victorian Romance

For over a year, Miss Gwendolyn Parkes and the Duke of Sowrith have corresponded. At first an error, the letters quickly became something much more, a friendship forged on like minds and perhaps the hope of something more…

When Gwen is compelled by her employer to attend the duke at his Dartmoor estate, she is devastated to find her beloved friend cold and imperious, even if he is the most handsome man she’s ever seen – despite his scars.

Edward, Duke of Sowrith, has longed to meet Gwen. Arranging her passage to his estate, he is tongue-tied when confronted with her quiet beauty. All too aware of the twisted ruin of his face, he allows fear to hold him silent…until Gwen’s safety is threatened.

Finally together, they grow closer until it seems they can never again be apart – but can a commoner and a duke find a happily ever after?

Released today from Decadent Publishing

Other books in the series:
SILK & SCANDAL (The Silk Series Book 1) - http://cassandradean.com/books/the-silk-series/silk-scandal/
SILK & SCORN (The Silk Series Book 2) - http://cassandradean.com/the-silk-series/silk-scorn


Excerpt
Crossing her arms over her stomach, Gwen leaned forward, pressing deep. Good heavens, she was nervous, and excited, and nervous. She was going to meet Edward. One moment soon, he was going to open that door and she would see him. She would see the man she’d corresponded with for over a year, to whom she’d expressed every thought, and who had expressed his to her. It did not matter that he was a duke, so far above her in consequence as to be laughable. He was her friend, and at last they would meet.

Foot tapping wildly, she leaned her head back against the wall. This was all so ridiculous. She was ridiculous, to have this unbridled excitement rioting through her. Exhaling, she caught the stare of the gargoyle. The gargoyle knew how ridiculous her thoughts. Its stone features laughed at her, and in a fit of pique, she poked her tongue out.

The study door opened. Leaping to her feet, she swayed as the blood rushed from her head.

Lord Beecham appeared in the door way and, eyes lighting upon her, he crooked a finger. “Miss Parkes. Come.”

Heart beating a rapid tattoo, she bent to grip the handle of her carpet bag. Lord Beecham had abandoned the door by the time she had gathered herself enough to approach, the worn wooden handle of the bag pressing deep into her palm.

Passing through the door, Gwen stopped and, jaw slack, she looked about the chamber. The room was huge, cavernous even, and dark. So dark. Lit only by the flame of the massive fireplace dominating one wall and the wan flicker of a lamp seated on the enormous desk, the light picked up rows upon rows of books while heavy drapes of an unidentifiable fabric covered what she could only presume were windows. The floor was the same stone as the hall, the only carpet appearing before the fire under the clawed feet of a large armchair.

Her gaze returned to the fireplace. A man stood before it, his back to her, right hand held by his left.

Her heart, already racing, started a wild thud against her ribs. That was him. The duke. Edward.

He did not turn, though she willed him to. Willed him to turn, so she could utter that most important of phrases, the one she’d longed to say for an age now.

Hello, Edward.

Professional Bio
Cassandra Dean is a best-selling, multi-published author of historical and fantasy romance. Her latest novel, SLUMBER, is part of Decadent Publishing’s Beyond Fairytales and features Cassandra’s take on Sleeping Beauty. Her next novel, SILK & SCARS, is part of her popular Silk Series, featuring Victorian Era lawyers and their happily ever after.

Cassandra is proud to call South Australia her home, where she regularly cheers on her AFL football team and creates her next tale.

Visit Cassandra’s website at http://cassandradean.com  
Join Cassandra’s mailing list at http://eepurl.com/kzesP  
Follow Cassandra on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCassandraDean and on Twitter @authorCassDean
Contact Cassandra at cassandra@cassandradean.com

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